Western Georgian rainforests, wetlands join UNESCO World Heritage List
The western Georgian wetlands and rainforests are recognised for their crucial role for the South Caucasus ecology and the Black Sea basin. Photo: Agency of Protected Areas.
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Four protected areas preserving wetlands and rainforests in Georgia's west will join the likes of Yellowstone National Park and Swiss Alps on the UNESCO World Heritage List, after the 2021 World Heritage Committee of the body selected them for inclusion on the coveted roster on Monday.
The Mtirala and Kolkheti National Parks, as well as the Kintrishi and Kobuleti protected areas will be listed alongside the just over 210 natural spots from across the world that have received the status from UNESCO, in a first development of the kind for Georgia.
The decision, made at the 44th session of the World Heritage Committee, held online and chaired from Fuzhou, China, saw reactions from officials and environmentalists in Georgia, with Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili calling it a "crucial event not only for the country, but [also for] the region".
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— UNESCO ????️ #Education #Sciences #Culture ???????????? (@UNESCO) July 26, 2021
Colchic Rainforests and Wetlands, ???????? #Georgia, inscribed on the @UNESCO #WorldHeritage List. Bravo! ????
ℹ️ https://t.co/X7SWIos7D9 #44WHC pic.twitter.com/sOAcQbP2KK
Recognised as a major element of the Black Sea basin and the South Caucasus ecological system, the four locations had been known to be in preparation for a nomination for the UNESCO list over the recent years.
Safeguarded by the Agency of Protected Areas of Georgia, the territorial formations have been formed between 1959-2007. The Kintrishi Protected Areas are the earliest of the four, established in 1959 in the Black Sea coastline Kobuleti Municipality with an area of over 13,000 hectares in the River Kintrishi ravine.
The Kolkheti National Park and Kobuleti Protected Areas were the next to follow in 1998, with the former established to safeguard and preserve the wetlands on the Black Sea’s eastern coast, and the latter to preserve “unique waterfowl habitat wetland ecosystems".
The Mtirala National Park is the latest formation, designated in 2007 within three mountain ranges and hosting visitors with its tourist trails and infrastructure.
Wetland landscape of the Kobuleti Protected Areas is home to biodiversity environmentalists are working to safeguard. Photo: Agency of Protected Areas.
The initiative for nominating the areas was launched in 2017 with support of the World Wide Fund for Nature and the Mikhael Zukov Foundation, and involved field studies of the areas in question for researching their biodiversity.
The World Heritage List currently features 213 natural locations such as the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe, Giant’s Causeway and Causeway Coast in Northern Ireland and the West Norwegian Fjords.
Three non-natural Georgian monuments are inscribed on the list — the Gelati Monastery in the country’s west, the Historical Monuments of Mtskheta, outside the capital Tbilisi, and Upper Svaneti, a highland province in the country’s north.
Four locations in Georgia’s west could become the first natural sites in the country to be inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, with the protected areas of Kolkheti, Mtirala, Kintrishi and Kobuleti nominated for the global roster through a collaboration of Georgian and foreign professionals.
The Georgian forests are soon to be announced among the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage sites. This means that the sites that have huge local importance for Georgians, will receive even more special cultural or physical significance worldwide.
Kobuleti and Kintrishi Protected areas in western Georgia have welcomed new infrastructure received through local and foreign support.
A delegation from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (UICN) is visiting the protected areas of Kolkheti, Mtirala, Kintrishi and Kobuleti to decide whether the unique Colchian forests and wetlands may be included on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Five of Georgia's most impressive protected areas have been hosting visitors free of charge to mark World Tourism Day on Monday, with dozens of museum spaces across the country set to follow suit on Tuesday. In a move to celebrate the international date, the tourism and national park bodies made the five locations accessible without admission fee.
The number of ecotourists visiting locations in Georgia has quadrupled since 2012 and reached a record high of 1,200,000 in the pre-pandemic year of 2019, the Georgian Agency of Protected Areas revealed on Thursday.
Western Georgia's Machakhela National Park, a part of the regional biome that was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List last year, is home to a diverse flora and fauna, but also to a senior Ranger who has been protecting the natural site for four decades, and is featured in a new short film released online on Saturday.
The Tana Reserve and the Tana and Tedzami Protected Landscape, with an area of 32,850 hectares in central Georgia's Gori Municipality, are the latest protected areas joining the list of natural locations in Georgia after a bill was approved by the Georgian Government on Monday.
Visitors of the Kolkheti National Park in Georgia’s west now have an opportunity to experience new zip line and rock-climbing attractions at the location, Georgia’s Agency of Protected Areas announced on Wednesday.
Georgia’s National Forestry Agency marked International Forest Day and World Down Syndrome Day on Tuesday by inviting young viewers to a screening of an animation film with an environmental message.